


What partners do

by azhureheart



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Episode Related, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-11
Updated: 2011-04-11
Packaged: 2017-10-17 22:53:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/182175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/azhureheart/pseuds/azhureheart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The months after Matt fled the country aren't easy for Danny. Spoilers for Loa Aloha (episode 118).</p>
            </blockquote>





	What partners do

**Author's Note:**

> Beta'd by the great Raynedanser, all remaining mistakes are mine.

**First night**

Steve doesn't say anything when Danny finally arrives. He offers a beer and a ear. When the dam finally breaks, he puts a hand on his shoulder and pretends he doesn't see the tears – the black screen of the TV has never been so interesting.

That's what partners do.

He doesn't tell him he should have shot his brother in the leg, in both legs if necessary. It's not who Danny is and it won't help him. If it had been Mary, he would have shot. Like Danny, he places family first and foremost but unlike him, he is not a cop.

In Danny's world, when the villains flee the country in a private jet, they live happily ever after in a paradise with no extradition agreement and all of their ill-gotten gains. They have won, nothing the cops can do this time, end of the story. They will get the next bastard.

Steve's previous job began after that. He chased terrorists, arms dealers and drug lords all over the world. And he knows that their stories don't stop on the other side of the border. Only the smartest or the most vicious survive more than two years. The others are eaten by bigger sharks. If Matt had been alone, maybe he would have managed to lay low abroad. Instead he chose to work with a drug cartel and that considerably reduces his life expectancy. A year, a year and a half at most, until someone else offers to launder their money more efficiently and Matt becomes a liability.

He would have shot Mary so she could be alive and hate him from an American prison. Better in a cage where he could still visit and take care of her than dead in a third world country, a body in a an unmarked grave he would never learn of. Better than receiving a call from one of his buddies apologizing to have been forced to put a bullet in her head during an op.

Steve doesn't say any of that as he passes Danny another beer and prepares the couch. He let him grieve who he thought his brother was and think he did right by him, vowing to make sure he never regrets to have not shot.

 **First month**

After that first night, the subject of Danny's brother is taboo. It's the pink elephant in the room when they hear him talking angrily on his phone to his sisters, or trying to reassure his mother. Even on his days with Grace, he is subdued. When Danny banters with him, it's only halfhearted. They're both in the Camaro, he's driving and yet Steve misses him every damn day.

The flight plan said the jet was going to Haiti but it never landed there. That doesn't stop Danny's father wanting to fly there and search for his wayward son. Danny doesn't say anything but Steve knows Danny's relationship with him is strained a bit further when he refuses to go with him.

They all make a point of not leaving him alone during their down time. Chin insists on taking him fishing or running, Kono needs his help at her place to move a thing or repair another. Steve is not much of a talker but he is good at hijacking Danny's life. He takes him to a bar or a small dinner, forces him to watch football with him. Danny isn't fooled but his smiles are a little less fake every day and that's enough for now.

When the news comes, it's not a surprise. Matt had been seen in Colombia with his drug dealer friends, but he made a stop in Singapore for them first. Steve doesn't hide it from Danny who simply nods and takes another beer.

 **First year**

Danny is back to being who he was before his brother fled. He still is the best partner Steve could dream of. They work well together. The blond flays him alive every time he does something he doesn't approve of. Really, what's a little bomb between friends ? They might need it one day. And yes, he probably shouldn't have taught Grace how to take down boys with less than appropriate manners but the little assholes clearly deserve what they got, thinking they could take her lunch money easily because she was a girl.

Things are good between them, better than he had any right to hope for at the beginning. When Danny comes to his home, once or twice a week, he doesn't sleep on the couch. They're not a couple, they don't hold hands or anything mushy like that. They just click, they don't over-think it. At least, Steve doesn't. But when he needs a service from Cat, he only repays her in beers now.

The surf lessons Danny still takes from Kono have him standing on the board now. Grace is better at it than he is and it's an endless subject of jokes for the team and Rachel.

Steve learned two months ago from one of his contacts that Matt killed a DEA agent, fleeing from a raid against the cartel he works for. Agent David Peterson had a pregnant wife, Matt rolled over him. He didn't tell Danny. It's only a question of time before Matt is either killed or arrested. Neither looks good.

Danny is the same as he was before... but sometimes when things are quiet, he has that look. He seems scared and far away. They all know whom he is thinking about at those times and they try to be more cheerful, planning a team barbecue at Steve's or a beach outing.

They haven't forgotten how he reacted a few months ago to the Colombians they were after.

 _Steve_ had had to be the _sensible_ one, that's how bad it was.

 **Finally**

His ex-CO calls him on a Thursday and tells him they're going to move against the cartel Matthew Williams works for. They're coming to LA and the FBI and the DEA are waiting for them. That warning costs him almost every favor he is owed. He books a flight to LA and says he is going to see Mary and that he'll be back on Monday to Chin. He doesn't lie to Danny but only because he does everything to avoid him in the two hours before he is due to at the airport.

Steve doesn't participate in the raid on the villa they're all staying at. He doesn't ask. Nobody thinks it would be a good idea, least of all him. He watches it from a van a few hundreds yards from it. On the video, Matthew Williams looks as sleek as he did a year ago in Hawaii. Some shots are fired but the situation is rapidly contained, arrests are made.

Steve gets five minutes with him afterward. From that close, Matt doesn't look so well. He has dark circles under his eyes and he has lost a few pounds. He looks haunted and it's petty but Steve is glad.

All the time he spends with Danny must have changed him because he doesn't punch the lights out of Matt when he asks about his brother.

“If you love him, you plead guilty to everything. You talk. You spare your family a trial you have no chance of winning.”

Danny would want to be in the courtroom from beginning to end, his heart breaking a little more each day. Steve is not going to let that happen, he is going to be hurt enough as it is.

Steve calls him from his car. Danny already knows it's about his brother.

“He's been arrested. I've booked you a flight to LA. The plane is taking off in forty minutes.”

Danny doesn't say anything before he hangs up. He doesn't say anything when Steve picks him up at LAX and he doesn't say anything in the hour it takes to drive back to the fed building. All that silence is getting on his nerves. He would prefer a rant or screams... pretty much anything other than this torture.

Danny goes into the building alone. Steve doesn't follow him in when he sees the look in his eyes. He waits outside, sitting against the car. Danny comes back forty-five minutes later and punches him. Steve saw it coming but didn't stop him. The car stops him from falling on his ass. Danny is glaring at him but he isn't furious, not really.

“We're going home,” Danny says once they're both in the rental.  
“You're sure?”  
“Yes.” One hand anxiously brings his hair back. “I called my parents. They're flying in tonight. I talked to him. He is talking. That's something. That's enough. I think.”  
“Okay. Home it is.”

They're in the plane when Danny suddenly places his hand on Steve's knee. Steve looks at him, Danny's eyes are still a little red. He seems more at peace than he did since he called him from LA. They don't really do that in public but this time it's strangely okay. The blond takes his head in his hand and presses a kiss on his mouth.  
“Thanks.”


End file.
